Conditioning is a process of learning in humans or animals, via an experimental procedure, where a given stimulus produces a response other than its normal, natural or automatic one. In the clasical form developed by Pavlov a dog learned to salivate at the sound of a bell or buzzer and not just at the presentation of food. Later B.F.Skinner developed a different procedure known as operant conditioning in which an animal's simple response could be used as the basis for training it to engage in very complex behaviour.
Definition